College has long been a time to drink in knowledge, grow
personally and begin exploring career options. It's still that,
but something about the college experience is shifting. With the
astonishing business successes and media exposure of their peers,
many college students are realizing they don't have to walk
down the job search road. Today, some form of entrepreneurship
training is available at more than 1,500 colleges and universities
nationwide, according to the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. And
the Collegiate Entrepreneurs' Organization, a Chicago-based
organization that supports college students who want to start
businesses, has grown from zero to 14,000 members since its
inception five years ago, with entrepreneurship clubs on 120
university campuses nationwide. College students are purchasing
franchises, too-and while some feel students might be too "wet
behind the ears" to helm franchises, college franchisees are
finding that ambition and effort, not candles on a birthday cake,
determine success.

While practically everyone has heard of Subway, not many people
know that its founder, Fred DeLuca, started the sandwich juggernaut
as a 17-year-old college student in 1965. Nearly 40 years later,
he's inspiring other young people to choose their own
destinies. Working at the local Subway has become almost a rite of
passage for teenagers, as it was for Jeff Smith back in 1994. He,
like DeLuca, was 17 when he began his relationship with
Subway-Smith worked there part time during high school and college
before graduating to the next level at Subway: ownership.

Smith isn't the only early achiever looking beyond the
corporate path. Brandon Gough, president of Juice It Up! Franchise
Corp., notes a recent increase in younger applicants interested in
the smoothie franchise. Gough says that while just "a
handful" of the existing franchisees are college-aged, Juice
It Up! is very receptive to taking on more youthful franchisees.
"College students who don't have the business background
to be successful on an independent level are able to take advantage
of the opportunity that a franchise provides," he says.

For two years, Smith dedicated himself to sub sandwich artistry
at the Subway in Cypress, California, before moving to the nearby
Garden Grove location while attending college. But Smith realized a
degree wasn't what he wanted. He was ready to start a
career.

Idle chitchat with the Garden Grove franchisee led to bigger
things when Smith said he was interested in purchasing a Subway.
When that owner found out the Cypress franchisees wanted to sell
their location, he told them of Smith's interest. "I was
looking [for an opportunity], and this was the only job I had had
in my life," says Smith, now 27. "It all just came
together at that point."

Higher Power

If cramming for finals is the most pressing item on your agenda,
don't automatically rule out becoming a franchisee. Gough
explains, "For Juice It Up!, if franchisees have the financial
capability and broad business experience, that's good. We
don't expect any industry-specific experience." The most
important factors for promising Juice It Up! candidates are the
right background and attitude.

Gough says someone can learn how to manage the finances of a
franchise like Juice It Up! without a business degree or an
accounting background, but he recommends that franchisees have a
legal representative as well as some kind of financial consultant
or accountant. The biggest challenge for younger franchisees who
don't have a lot of experience is working with employees.
"Managing people is critical," says Gough.

Smith was only 21 when he purchased the Cypress location in
1998; he had his father and his father's wife sign on as
partners, though he was the owner/operator. His father, who had
recently retired as president of a shipping and transportation
company, helped Smith handle the paperwork and some financial
aspects of the business. "I was good at running the
operations," says Smith, "but I wasn't educated in
[those areas]. He made sure everything was in order."

While working at a location of the franchise you're
interested in does provide experience, be cognizant of the
increased responsibilities that await you as owner. When Smith
first ran the store as an owner, he had to make a few adjustments
since he no longer had a superior to turn to. "I had to take
care of any situation that arose, from the time I opened to the
time I closed," says Smith. That included the unpleasant task
of firing employees. His Cypress location employed many people who
were either relatives or friends with each other, and Smith himself
had worked with some of them as an employee. Though he admits
firing someone for the first time was strange, he says, "It
didn't really bother me. I knew it had to be done."

While Smith's operational challenges have been minimal, the
work hasn't. Smith, with his partners, purchased a second
location in Orange, California, in 1999. He's since hired a
manager for his Orange location, but still spends time at both
locations seven days a week. And even in his off hours, Smith is on
call. "When someone calls in sick and it's a Friday night,
I can't go out. Sometimes you have to sacrifice."

And when it comes to vacationing, Smith warns other young,
would-be franchisees, "It's definitely hard to do. You
have to have people you can trust to take care of your business
while you're gone. If something goes wrong, you need to have
someone there who can handle it, or get back in time to take care
of it."

And don't let your youthful appearance fool anyone. Advises
Smith, "Be firm, and stand up for yourself, because people
might try to walk all over you."

Winging It

Another franchise that welcomes the college-aged set actually
originated from that demographic. Wing Zone, a takeout
and delivery Buffalo wing chain, was started in the fraternity
house kitchen of founders Matthew Friedman and Adam Scott. When he
first arrived at the University of Florida in Gainesville, native
New Yorker Friedman loved everything about the region but noticed
one omission-Buffalo wings were nowhere to be found. "I felt
chicken wings and college students were a perfect match, so I came
up with a takeout and delivery restaurant primarily based around
college markets," Friedman says.

Friedman, now 33, and Scott, now 31, got permission from their
fraternity to use the house kitchen at night, installed a separate
phone line, and began handing out menus around campus. For six
weeks, the pair tested their concept and quickly realized they had
hit on something. Says Friedman, "We were very fortunate to
have immediate success for a lot of reasons. We were definitely
undercapitalized and needed to do business right off the bat in
order to pay bills."

As word spread, it became obvious the fraternity kitchen could
no longer contain Wing Zone, so in 1993, with profits from the
business and loans from their parents, Friedman and Scott opened
the doors to their first restaurant. They also earned business
degrees. Today, the company has more than 70 locations.

Though they faced challenges in starting the business, and
Friedman and Scott's grades and personal lives may have
suffered in the process, they believe college was the right time to
take the leap. "Being young and starting a business, you
don't have the pressures you do when you get older. You can
survive a financial fall," Friedman explains. "If we had
failed back in 1993, we would have recovered without a
problem."